This invention relates to novel arabinopyranosyl nucleosides and nucleotides which exhibit useful antitumor, antiviral and antimicrobial activities, to methods of preparing these nucleosides and nucleotides, and to pharmaceutical compositions containing them. More particularly this invention relates to novel arabinopyranosyl nucleosides and nucleotides having the heterocyclic base and fluorine at the 2'-position of the sugar ring.
Several nucleic acid derivatives have been found to possess antitumor activity. Most of the agents developed to date, however, exhibit many undesirable toxic side effects or undergo rapid inactivation in vivo. Accordingly the need to develop new antineoplastic agents exhibiting improved therapeutic indices is still recognized throughout the pharmaceutical industry.